What You May Not Have Known About Woodstock

I’ve been fascinated with Woodstock, the sixties and the Hippie Movement for a while now. Mostly because it seemed like such a fun time to be alive and a more laid back atmosphere than what it is now-a-days.

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called “The Sixties,” where they feature various major events from the era in different episodes. My favorite, of course, was the episodes all about the hippies. I learned some new things about Woodstock that I never knew before, so I thought I’d share. (along with some other cool facts I’ve found online)Enjoy!

The volunteers at Woodstock fed over 200,000 people, after purchasing enormous amounts of food and food supplies.

The town of Bethel where Woodstock took place only had a population of about 100 when the hippies started to arrive. The locals in this small town were in shock over the amount of people that came and took over.

Unlike other music festivals during its time, Woodstock had no fights at all. Everyone who participated treated each other kindly. (With such a large amount of people, this is hard to believe! But it also shows just how serious they were about peace.)

John Lennon was supposed to be at Woodstock with The Beatles, but rumors of immigration issues occurred. Another story says he wanted Yoko Ono to appear on stage with him. Among some of the other bands/artists who were asked included The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Roy Rogers, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, Jethro Tull & Jeff Beck Group.

Babies were born during the festival, while some women also had miscarriages.

There were ten million yards of blue jeans and striped T-shirt material. (Woah!)

500,000 hippies celebrated at Woodstock, while a million more had to turn around due to traffic. (Said to be backed up for 9 miles!)

The organizers of Woodstock were in at least $1.3 million worth of debt afterwards.

Woodstock was declared a free event after the ticket booths were never installed due to the amount of festival-goers. After the first day, the fences were torn down. (Each booth was supposed to charge $24 per ticket)

There was a concession stand that raised the price of burgers from 50 cents to $1 after they realized they were running low. When attendees saw this, they said it was capitalist exploitation and burned the stand down.

People always thought I was the girl on the cover of the Woodstock album.:0) We were idealistic and I think many of us boomers still are but like me, most of us are failed hippies. We grew up. It was fun but boy were we wrong about a lot of things…